"The briddes synge, it is no nay,
The sparhawk and the papejay,
That joye it was to heere"
(B, 1956)—
is obscure, though various forms of it are found in most of the European languages. In English it was applied not only to the parrot, but also to the green woodpecker. The London Directory form is Pobgee.
With bird nicknames may be mentioned Callow, unfledged, cognate with Lat. calvus, bald. Its opposite also survives as Fleck and Flick-—
"Flygge, as byrdis, maturus, volabilis."
(Prompt. Parv.)
Margaret Paston, writing (1460) of the revived hopes of Henry VI., says—
"Now he and alle his olde felawship put owt their fynnes, and arn ryght flygge and mery."
We have naturally a set of names taken from the various species of falcons. To this class belongs Haggard, probably related to Anglo-Sax. haga, hedge, and used of a hawk which had acquired incurable habits of wildness by preying for itself. But Haggard is also a personal name (Chapter VIII). Spark, earlier Sparhawk, is the sparrow-hawk. It is found already in Anglo-Saxon as a personal name, and the full Sparrowhawk also exists. Tassell is a corruption of tiercel, a name given to the male peregrine, so termed, according to the legendary lore of venery—